The Official Gardening Thread

[bobjustbob]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

I know my garden will look great but man its hard work. Every time I water or dig I have to ask myself is it worth it? :1orglaugh

You know what? I ask myself the same thing. With the money I spend just doing simple deck stuff I can just go to the market and buy it. 3 days since picked and shipped. Any day. any time, ready to use. The difference is the thrill of the hunt. I had a few people over for simple dinner. Chicken, potato and string beans. I snipped my rosemary, stabbed the chicken, and shoved the whole stems in. S&P, fry for a crisp skin then turn. Basic baked potato but finish by splitting, crisping into a pan of bacon grease. My crispy bacon is now ready to top the potato and salad.

Grabbed the scissors and cut chives. Pile onto a potato with a just a dab of sour cream. Nice look. I told my guests to find the stalks in the chicken and pull them out. I could see their faces as they tasted and looked at what they just cut into. Eyes lit. It was so fucking simple I could have stacked poker decks all night and had kisses going out the door.

Yea, it's worth the work.

Bob.

PS: My girlfriend taught me the killer Spanish string bean side dish. Ask if you want to know. Everything is in your fridge.

 

[squallumz]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

fresh chives on potatoes is awesome. my ex's mom in highschool used to pull those from her garden and we'd have em with salmon dinner. yum.

i tried to start some of them myself this year but they never took off. and now, its too fucking hot. 110 today. bunch of bullshit.


got some corn growing though! and 3 or 4 more squashes are getting ready for a picking.


go ahead with the recipe, bob. we have harvested some green beans ourselves. they were gonna end up in a dry sauteed chinese dish but im curious what you have.

 

[jinxypie]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

I posted a few pics of my tiny garden today on my Rants and Raves blog. Here they are for your enjoyment or amusement:

The whole shebang

My single okra plant

A hot pepper plant

The squashes - tiny, no?

Tomato plants

And lastly, the tiny watermelon plant. This sucker needs to get a move on.

I didn't take a pic of the zucchini, because it isn't that interesting right now. NO blooms/veggies yet. :dunno:

 

[squallumz]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

hey, you had me all worried about your garden! things look great AND healthy!

look at those yellow squash! yummmm.

and your tomatos are bigger than mine.


im worried about the heat here. it was 110 today. i hope things tough it out..


OH~! the watermelon plant. dont let that little dick trick you. they take off when it gets hot. my plant is small too. last year, it shot out like mad in the summer. 3 seeds took over my entire garden.

 

[jinxypie]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

hey, you had me all worried about your garden! things look great AND healthy!

I think the only thing that looks healthy is the zuc/squash. Even the tomato plants I'm concerned about... last year, by that size they had flowers. We had a lot of cold nights when these pups were growing. I already lost EVERY pear and apple on the tree this year, and now my garden is disappointing me. I had ALL KINDS of seeds going, but this is what I end up with.

Could be worse I guess...

 

[squallumz]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

I think the only thing that looks healthy is the zuc/squash. Even the tomato plants I'm concerned about... last year, by that size they had flowers. We had a lot of cold nights when these pups were growing. I already lost EVERY pear and apple on the tree this year, and now my garden is disappointing me. I had ALL KINDS of seeds going, but this is what I end up with.

Could be worse I guess...

could be way worse.

my tomato plants may be ok size but the flowers were shit. im blaming the bees. not a lot of bees this year, and i didnt shake the plants often enough. i just didnt have time. but, its early still. tomatoes like the sun and thats coming out now.

we also lost a small grapefruit tree. the whole thing dried up to the bone. no idea why.

 

[bobjustbob]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

You 2 folks have 2 growing seasons, right? I live in NJ and seeds gotta go inside till frost breaks. No real second season for lots of stuff. But the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers keep going till it snows. I wont grow those. I'm one person and there is only so much I can do with all of that stuff once they take off. It comes to the point that you are picking everyday. I'll stick to the herbs.

Jinxy, you've got a nice little thing going on. The squash are small but there are many. As squallumz said, wait till those melons take off. They'll be chasing you to your car.

The green bean thing is simple. Crack some eggs and scramble them up with some flour. Not a thick batter. Just enough to see that is an egg flour mixture. Heat up a pan with some oil. Grab a portion of green beans,5,6,7 whatever size you like. Dip them into the egg batter and cost well. Drop them into your fry pan as a clump. Brown on both sides. How much fresh crispy snap you want your green beans depends upon how high your heat is. Cook it on high and the egg cooks faster and the beans stay snappy. Cook it lower and you get a softer bean.

Once browned, serve as your veg with a spoon of any commercial salsa on top. Looks great and the kids will love it.

Bob.

 

[squallumz]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

battered and fried? wow.. never thought of that. i can see that being very kid friendly.

 

[jinxypie]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

My garden is ... well, faring much better than I had originally whined about.
I'll show some pics this weekend. The leaves on the zucchini plant are bigger than my head, I swear.
Oh, and I see some blooms on the tomato plants finally!!!!
:thumbsup:

 

[squallumz]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

yeah, good!

i gotta do some pics too. everything is massive!

i finally have a tomato on the vine!

 

[TheSpokenWheel]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

If I'm going to start growing cuckes and snappers, I should probably get that shit going...err, growing. First frost around here is relatively unpredictable. Obviously it will still be a while, but I'm an ace procrastinator.

 

[RichardNailder]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

I've been eating strawberries like mad this week and everything else is doing wonderful. The giant pumpkins are getting the first pollinated pumpkins and the corn is sprouting - although not as evenly as I had hoped. Too lazy to post pics - they're all on my Facebook though.

 

[RichardNailder]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

could be way worse.

my tomato plants may be ok size but the flowers were shit. im blaming the bees. not a lot of bees this year, and i didnt shake the plants often enough. i just didnt have time. but, its early still. tomatoes like the sun and thats coming out now.

we also lost a small grapefruit tree. the whole thing dried up to the bone. no idea why.

Shake the plants? WTF - I shake my wiener but plants...... that's just fuckin weird.

 

[RichardNailder]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

Am I supposed to choke them too?

 

[squallumz]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

Shake the plants? WTF - I shake my wiener but plants...... that's just fuckin weird.

to spread the pollen around. speeds things up.

 

[RichardNailder]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

to spread the pollen around. speeds things up.

Hey - I knew that - just too drunk to remember earlier...... and I needed an excuse to shake my wiener.

We used to ride the pony down the rows of corn if we had too many windless days.

 

[squallumz]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

Hey - I knew that - just too drunk to remember earlier...... and I needed an excuse to shake my wiener.

We used to ride the pony down the rows of corn if we had too many windless days.

hehe, its all good man. ill have a brew for you right now. *raises beer*

 

[bobjustbob]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

I took your advice and started the food program. I tested half with half without. 1 week and a noticeable difference. I gave the thyme more space and although still small, very hearty. Flowers are just starting to come out of bud. I don't know if I should snip them off or just let them go.

I split some of the chive of from the other herbs. All are doing well. The mesclun from seeds are looking nice and bushy in their 12 inch pots. My spinach is still small even with the food. I got another deck pot and put them in to give more room. I don't know about my parsley. It is growing but too much yellowing. I snip them off but more yellowing appears.

Bob.

 

[squallumz]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

the bigger the plant, the more they eat. this is because they also eat through the leaves.

glad we did food this year. what a difference.

 

[RichardNailder]

Re: 2012 Official Gardening Thread

Just came out of the strawberry patch with red fingers and mouth.... I keep saying I'm going to make strawberries and cream but I never make it out of the garden with the little fuckers. Another huge bowl worth today and plenty for the rest of the week. Then I should start seeing zucchini.